Friday, July 25, 2008

Solar Trees -- art and science come together

I'm a big proponent of Solar Energy. If I could get solar panels on my roof that would be cost effective, I would do it.

From CNN, comes the story of designer Ross Lovegrove's street lamps (Solar Trees) that not only use solar energy, but are beautiful pieces of sculpture. They seem to be sprouting in Europe...why not here in the US? Apparently, even after 4 days without sun, the lamps still work.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/07/24/solar.trees/index.html

Why is the US so behind the times with energy-efficient innovations?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The reason we are so far behind is corporations are struggling on how they can get a recurring piece of income. Sell a homeowner a solar system and it's a one time sale, put up a solar farm and the homeowner pays for it every month. The last thing corporations want is solar independence at the homeowner level that interferes with their income stream.

greendragon said...

Good point! Of course, I would assume there would be maintenance contracts that would provide some recurring revenue. Or possibly a lease program (lease all or part of the equipment rather than owning outright?).